Could the U.S occupy Iran ?

[MikoyanPT]

They couldn´t ever ocupy it.

The iranians would unite against the invader, every single village would became a new Falluja, and the big citys something like Grozny.

Every single road would suffer ambushes from resistants equiped with nice trinkets like AT 14 kornets or iranian versions of TOW.

Do not uderestimate Iranian people, they pulled out a victory against Iraq when France, US and Russia were suporting Iraq. They suffered tremendous losses but didn´t lose their fighting spirit and pushed back hard.

US would not only break their chin but also block the Ormuz strait and screw world economy.

In a simple sentence, all the known world will apreciate that US stay away from Iran.

And i would apreciate you US guys don´t further sink the stock market.

[permanent666]

Originally posted by JasonC:

There would be plenty of internal elements willing to support the resulting regime change, as well as a large exile community eager to help run a democratic Iran.

i think the internal support would melt away with every civilian casualty caused by us/coalition troops.

[MikeyD]

I recently heard a radio commentator say that, ironically, Iran is the last country in the region (except maybe Kuwait) where the general populace still retain any vestigal good will towards the U.S. Sorta in the same way communist Poland was the last European country to retain an interest in Catholicism. Its the lure of the forbidden, a subtle show of opposition to the regime in power. But this good will is fragile. After we went into Iraq Iran's conservative rural population overruled Tehran's college-educated urban liberals and voted in Achmadinejad.

[RichMac]

Originally posted by Rankorian:

Then China takes a little swipe at Taiwan--because it then could.

That's the key...

I can see it now. China, very angry that we just drove the price of oil up to $200/barrel, decides to invade Taiwan.

The American economy, already in recession (let's face it folks, we are already there), would crumble under these kind of oil prices. What would $10 a gallon do to your wallet? Not to mention your employer's profits?

The US would be in no position to oppose China in Taiwan. Argue all you want about carrier fleets coming to the rescue - China will beat us economically. They already could crash the dollar. We piss them off by opposing a Taiwan invasion and it could be lights-out for the US before we knew what hit us. All of which would be compounded by ridiculously high oil prices.

The US cannot occupy Iran because we cannot get that far into the conflict. We would be on our economic knees in three weeks.

[MikoyanPT]

Originally posted by RichMac:

The US cannot occupy Iran because we cannot get that far into the conflict. We would be on our economic knees in three weeks.

Three weeks ?

Your stock brokers take three weeks to process a "SELL, SELL, SELL" order ?

Here were i live it takes about 15 minutes.